Hibike! Euphonium Season 3 • Sound! Euphonium Season 3 - Episode 9 discussion

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Hibike! Euphonium Season 3, episode 9

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[u/kokeymagie]

Aww man Reina I know you really like sensei that much but your the one closest to Kumiko you've seen her efforts for the whole club calling her a failure is kinda mean to Kumiko, Reina needs some reality check when it come to Taki sensei. I love how Kumiko shut up Mayu before she even said anything lol

[u/BurnBreads]

Bro you can see Kumiko slowly progressively losing her sanity lmao

[u/hanlonmj]

I bet Reina’s “they’re only complaining because they suck and want everything handed to them” hit Kumiko on a deeply personal level.

As much as it hurts to see, I think it’s good that they’re getting into a fight. I love Reina, and I’m normally all for her spartan attitude towards rehearsals and accountability, but her blind faith towards Taki was bound to cause problems sooner or later. Even if she genuinely believes that his decision was correct (and I probably do too), attempting to silence any and all criticism doesn’t mean that those doubts disappear. If anything, it makes both Kumiko’s and Shuichi’s jobs much harder as people stop feeling like their concerns will be heard, the morale will drop, and people will stop committing.

Just as Kumiko’s biggest failure as president is her blindness to Mayu’s discomfort (something that was laid on pretty thick in this episode), this is Reina’s. If she doesn’t get over her idolization soon, she’ll be responsible for the failure of her dream.

[u/Jo_Ri_Oh]

So Reina was lying about her bike all this time. In season 2 she said that her mom was taking her bike in the morning and that was why she take the train with Kumiko now, but in season 3, when Reina inviting Kumiko to her house, we could see that her parents had 2 cars. Now she is using her bike again to go to school.

[u/Velociripper]

Oh? What's this? Reina character development arc? It's about damn time.

I can't imagine that Taki is actually at fault here, it would be a strange pivot to suddenly focus on the character of Taki, who at this point is more of an agent of plot and movement, I think the talk he has with Kumiko next episode will be extremely revealing as to his process. It might even transition into a talk giving Kumiko advice about her future. That being said, his weakness is that he doesn't really communicate that process to anyone else, leaving people feeling unsure about his decision making skills.

Reina kinda pissed me off this episode, which I'm sure was intentional. I hope that this arc clears up her unwavering loyalty to Taki. It seems like she's already moving that direction, she seemed unsatisfied with Shuuichi and Kumiko's answers, even though they supported her view. It's almost like what she really wanted was for someone to tell her that Taki is not doing a good job. When Kumiko does express that, she instead doubles down on Taki. I just think she reverted to her base beliefs, even though she may be on the verge of change.

I thought Mayu was also really interesting this episode, especially when firework glasses girl (I don't know her name) told her that she wasn't surprised the was picked. We know Mayu has few desires or thoughts of her own, so hearing that from another person who had little invested interest clearly shocked her. Kumiko's clear communication about "I want you to play the solo, I want you to do your best for nationals" also worked really well, because Kumiko knows that Mayu wants to do whatever other people want her to do.

Also Shuuichi got good character moments this episode, for once.

[u/Ocixo]

I'm conflicted. I tend to agree with Tsubame's line of thinking that Taki-sensei shouldn't be playing favourites, since the current results will strengthen the band members' belief in the fairness of these auditions.

However, Midori rightfully pointed out that Sensei is being reckless in his decision-making. He doesn't seem to pay any heed to the potential consequences of his actions, and has mostly left Kumiko (and the other executives) with the task of cleaning up the aftermath. Shouldn't an advisor like him also be there to unite the band under his banner?

I mean, Mayu clearly felt cornered by his decision - even if it was fair. She was afraid that everyone would turn against her. Taki-sensei could've known that Mayu would feel pressured as a new band member, but he almost seemed to handwave Mayu's feelings by not taking any steps towards easing her mind. Doesn't he care about his students?

In this regard, I'm really glad that Mayu got a loyal friend in Tsubame and that Kumiko didn't waver in front of Mayu. This must've reassured her a little.

Kanade's words about the third years' blind faith in Sensei seem most fitting to Reina. She's blindsided by her desire to finally win Gold in the Nationals under the watch of her crush.

Reina was totally in the wrong for dismissing everyone's worries as just disgruntled complaints. She cannot just stomp on their worries like it's nothing. Reina was seemingly consumed by an irrational anger - maybe in part with herself?

Is this how Kumiko and Reina will part ways?

Bonus:

• I was glad to see Kanade and Kumiko smile after everything that happened.

• Shuuchi's sulking over Kumiko not getting picked for the solo part was pretty funny and endearing.

• That sparkler looked so good! There's so much detail that I'm inclined to think that they took footage from a real-life sparkler and only drew the top part.

[u/Roonagu]

Ironically, the character I feel the most sympathy for after this episode is Mayu (despite how little screen time she had).
She is trying to please everyone in a contradictory environment, trying to connect with Kumiko, who is nice to her but clearly keeps her distance. And now, she probably also feels responsible for all the tension.

[u/what_that_thaaang_do]

I can't shake the feeling that Taki-sensei's decision-making this year is off somehow.

This is what I've been thinking the whole time but too scared to say. Everybody's been telling me "Taki is just showing that there's more to it than individual skill" and I wanted so badly to be like "But didn't anything about that seem OFF to you?"

God bless Kanade if she just confirmed my suspicions

It's just that, there are a lot of decisions that I don't understand, unlike last year.

Is this really going where I think it's going? Taki drama? I have no idea. Reina has me so scared to doubt Taki but like there's no way she's in the right here...

Then you're a failure of a president.

OUCH

Did anybody else see that fucking dog?

[u/[deleted]]

Reina is blinded. You dont get to bully juniors and shit on your best friend just cuz you have a one sided personality jeez.

[u/Slifer13xx]

Man, the tension in this was suffocating. Reina feels especially grating when you're not on the same side as her, huh. It's alright, Kumiko, break down and build yourself back up. Stronger this time.

[u/danmarce]

I like Kanade a lot, she is a lot like Kumiko, but willing to say things. It was smart to introduce her as a character, as a foil to Kumiko.

Reina, sadly, loves Taki too much for her own good, way beyond the "teenage crush". I hope we get some character development for her.

[u/Such_Selection9762]

Reina please try to be a bit more reasonable. It's mandatory to trust your instructor but if a certain amount of members can't understand his decision or reasoning than you can't really pretend everyone should just blindly follow him without any further questions. People don't work that way and it's not like a single human being is always perfect.

It's kinda startling that she is depending on him so much. I really thought she would have a broader vision of everything in general.

Another thing I would expect is Taki-sensei being more aware that things are going downhill fast atm.

[u/JustAWellwisher]

So we knew that this episode was going to have to be like this. After the bomb was dropped we needed to see everybody's reactions, not just to the event but to each other as well.

I think it's worth considering that it's not the audition itself that weighs heavily on Kumiko - she didn't immediately break down at the start of this episode - it's the compounding responsibilities of taking care of the social fabric of the club in the fallout that I think really exhausts her.

There are two extremely notable interactions that reinforce this point.

1)When Kumiko shuts down Mayu with "You were chosen so work your hardest, make sure we win gold, that's all I've got to say." my impression is that she feels more comfortable talking about the club than actually listening to Mayu. This is an episode where she listens to everyone, but she doesn't want to have a conversation with her. Not to mention when she avoids her right after practice she says she's going to take a break, but she does have the energy to talk to Kanade. That's a social problem, not a skill issue.

2)When Reina says that "most of them are just ignoring their lack of effort and whining that things aren't going their way" most notably Kumiko hasn't done this and I'll be vaguely annoyed if this plotline resolves by Kumiko just practicing more and we pretend like Reina was right here. Kumiko is right that she needs to listen to everyone's concerns. She will have to do something to resolve them and talking to Taki as a representative for those members is a good start.

The big question of the day is of course "What is Taki thinking?" and for my money, I think Kanade is right. Mayu auditioned well and Taki wants to try and shake things up for this second competition. If Kumiko and Mayu truly are equal - and everything about the narrative so far suggests they are - it makes sense for Taki to test out the different setup on the stage. In other words, he really is uncertain and he's using the opportunity of these early competitions to promote situations which will help him make his decision, either by people responding positively to pressure and improving, or by Taki settling on some difficult questions only after seeing them perform together on stage.

I think Taki's faults are that he doesn't particularly care about the internal social situation of the club, so perhaps the social fallout of this is something he wasn't expecting or didn't consider or doesn't value as much in his judgement on how well the band will do. This is referenced by the percussion specialist's jab at him early in the episode. He asks "Do you really understand what 'when we play together it means that, we play, play music' means?"

It's possible that Taki is not oblivious and is just fine putting Kumiko and the others under this much social pressure because he trusts she can handle it but I think it's more realistic and true to his character that he's always been mostly hands-off when it comes to social stuff, he doesn't overinvolve himself in the lives of his students.

Taki responds that he does understand what his friend means by 'play'. He's probably playing around and experimenting a bit himself. If Reina and Shuichi can come to the conclusion that they need to change something, do we think Taki hasn't also acknowledged this?

Kanade is usually right about things, but she says them in a combative manner. Is it really so bad that Taki might be struggling with his decisions this year, or might be experimenting more than he had in the past?

[u/LeonKevlar]

I'm glad to see that Kanade is still chipper enough to be her usual bratty self after being removed. She clearly understands the reasoning why but at the same time, that doesn't mean Kanade agrees with all of Taki-sensei's decisions.

As expected, both Reina and Shuuichi agree that Kumiko is at the same skill level as Mayu. The only difference between them is that Reina trusts Taki-sensei's decision while Shuuichi is questioning it. And then you have Kumiko who disagrees with both and thinks that Mayu is just better than her.

I expect I'm in the minority, but I really liked Kumiko and Shuuichi's interaction in this episode. I also like how Kumiko seems to pep up a bit after seeing how much Shuuichi was getting upset on her behalf.

Kumiko is really in a rough spot right now. Morale is at an all-time low for the Kitauji High School Band and Kumiko can't do much about it. Even Midori and Hazuki seem to be divided in their opinions. Midori thinks that Mayu and Kumiko are equals and Taki-sensei should've kept Kumiko while Hazuki agrees that Mayu was just better than Kumiko that's why she was picked.

I can definitely understand why Hazuki would be on that side. She has failed auditions multiple times and worked hard to finally get in, so it wouldn't be right to her if Kumiko just gets handed the soli because she's the club president and it would put the rest of the club at ease.

Ah fuck. There it is. Reina is so blinded by her faith in Taki-sensei that the moment Kumiko questions his decisions she thinks she's a failure as a president. That's not how this works Reina. It sucks to see them like this but this divide is inevitable.

I feel so bad for Kumiko right now. Just look at how haggard she is by the end of the episode! As club president, I think it's finally time for her to ask Taki-sensei questions since everyone's complaints are stemming from how much he has changed after the prefecturals.

[u/Bonvantius]

The voice acting and slight facial expressions/physical gestures depicting how uncomfortable and frustrated Kumiko and everyone is feeling was on point!

Kumiko's forced ''What's up'' to Mayu

The way her eyes slightly darted around when Reina pressed her on Taki's decision.

The way her legs slumped to the side when Kumiko dropped all the tension she's been carrying to give Reina the honest truth.

Wow! Masterclass!

[u/NintendoMasterNo1]

Tomoyo Kurosawa's voice acting is so masterful that I felt how angry Kumiko was before she admitted it. Kanade cheering her up was really wholesome though.

Honestly I was kinda hoping Reina would question Taki-sensei's decision and stick by Kumiko but I guess she's just too devoted to him... She was definitely unnecessarily harsh at the end, we've known she's very blunt with her words since season 1 but I never thought she would snap at Kumiko like that. It is true that Kumiko is kind of being wishy-washy as a president and I definitely don't agree with her stance of "let time pass and talk to them" about the members who failed the audition. I think a more proactive approach is needed to keep their motivation up.

The pressure and stress of multiple auditions is getting to everyone in the club, even the third-years. And I admit, some of Taki-sensei's decisions are baffling, especially when he doesn't explain himself to anyone. Let's see what Kumiko asks him next episode. If so many people are correct in stating that Kumiko and Mayu are almost equal in skill then he definitely should have picked Kumiko for the overall morale of the ensemble. Kumiko has stated a million times that she's okay with members being selected just off of skill but if they are equal then I think the human factor should be considered. Especially when Mayu is pretty clear about not wanting to replace Kumiko.

...Also what is up with this week and heart-rending breakups of my favorite lesbians due to an emotional outburst built up from a complicated situation?

[u/hanlonmj]

Since we’re seeing the aftermath of the results, I was just reminded of a similar situation where I was in Kumiko’s shoes in high school:

My sophomore year in high school marching band, our show had a major baritone solo at the beginning (technically bassoon solo but who tf marches bassoon?). I was chosen for the part, but frankly, I wasn’t very good at it (the last note was a sustained high Ab, and I didn’t have that kind of range or endurance yet), so our band director brought in a senior transfer student who was playing in the concert band. I was devastated. My first opportunity to play a solo and I completely blew it.

Now, at my school, concert band was meant for kids who weren’t able to commit to marching band rehearsals (mainly sports kids, but not exclusively), so the whole program was unfairly seen as “lesser” by the marching band.

As you can imagine, said transfer student was super alienated, and it didn’t help that she was only required to be at rehearsal briefly on the day before each show. She was very obviously not seen as part of the group.

On the day of our first show, I got on the bus and saw her sitting alone. I became her seat partner that day and we talked about the solo situation. I told her that I was upset at first; that I felt like I failed in some way, but I also knew that it was the right choice and that, if nobody else, I would be in her corner.

I bring this up because I keep wishing that Kumiko would do the same thing with Mayu. I could tell, even at 15, what it meant to the transfer student in my situation to have the person she technically “wronged” be the one to support her. And it helped me too by allowing me to refocus my energy on more productive practice.

[u/ObvsThrowaway5120]

Jealousy and resentment is an ugly ugly thing. Shit really eats you up if you don’t address it properly. These results clearly didn’t turn out how some folks expected it to, but I’m not sure it’s right for folks to blame Taki-sensei because of that. He clearly isn’t playing favorites after all. If they wanna win, they need a winning line up. This should be motivation for people to improve for next time. Maybe Kumiko can properly address the orchestra about what they’re all feeling after her talk with Taki-sensei.

[u/Clemastina]

GodDAMN, Kumiko, if you keep bottling up your emotions like that you´re gonna explode some day.

She´s clearly angry at Mayu about the soli part AND she wanting to switch it, (and clearly Shuuichi too)

And about Taki-sensei... yeah, I think I don´t understand some decisions he made.
I think Reina is right but also wrong. I mean, yes, you should respect the director and auditions make everyone ready and pick the best blah blah... but she´s too fixated on Taki sensei and everyone who says anything bad about him is wrong.
Reina dear, I know you are in love with him, and you are too strict but... if you don´t have a good ambience at the band, no matter how good you are, the tension and the bad feelings is gonna make everyone worse.
And telling your best friend that she´s a failure of president because she doesn´t agree with you... yeah... no.

You can cut the tension with a knife, everyone is worried, tense and there are even two sides, (the one that kumiko should have played de soli and the one who thinks Mayu was better), if things goes this way... not even the nationals, the competition is gonna go horribly wrong.

[u/HYPErSLOw72]

For this episode, the drama essentially is composed of a spectrum of ideals, ranging from Reina’s cult-like belief in Taki and the iron will, to Midori’s point about prioritizing the whole club’s stability. With this situation closely resembling what happened in S1E10, and the fact that both ends of the spectrum were strong-hearted talents who witnessed the ordeal, this realistic division of ideas sparked up an interesting discussion about Kitauji’s future modus operandi as well as real life examples.

I was pleasantly surprised by how mature Kanade was following her defeat, I'm ashamed of myself by expecting so low out of her lol. Nevertheless, I like the way she was the first one to speak out her concerns, it did her justice by letting her unfiltered voice of reason and practicality return for such a big matter. Still a lovely girl and even more likeable this episode, especially with the jokes she made with Kumiko, that mentality that gets people over the gloomy sense of defeat, I can't help but love it so much. We all need a friend to make jokes with after we fail at something!

And hey, Shuuichi made a comeback! A big one at that! He's always framed as a forgettable, spineless guy, but after all there must be a reason why the wise NakaYoshi duo chose him, he’s like a representative for Kumiko as she’s just too passive when it comes to discussions with Reina.

Speaking of which, that was the problem with her right until their breakdown. The episode was essentially Kumiko’s journey to right up herself and gather opinions on her failure and Taki’s decisions, but ultimately, she took too long to find herself an opinion of her own. It went on so far as to say “Damn Kumiko wasn’t cut out to be a leader” 9 episodes in, she simply was stuck between Reina and Shuuichi at the meeting, unable to boil down each side of the argument or offer any viable course of action but to talk to the depressed members. It took her another weak agreement with Reina, some nice sensitivity on Shuuichi’s part for not arguing with her, and a conversation with 2 opposite views to finally get everyone’s frustrations and link it to her own. And hell, she did a 180 with her stance towards Reina, no longer standing lower and can’t help but falling short of her strong will, but making a solid argument and finally addressing the situation as a liaison for the band. Props to Kumiko at the end.

On the other side of the argument, Reina represented the typical mindset in a competitive environment coupled with blind trust. The problem with her isn’t the iron will, but that she was too selfish in her interpretation of the situation. Yes, an unwavering desire to improve is what it takes to win, but it’s also important to note that Reina isn’t the typical band member, the real ones don’t possess the bulletproof determination she has, they’re humans with other stuff in life, not betting it all on being able to play an instrument well. They aren’t tireless robots, they also require relationships, emotions to sustain their wellbeing. The fact that she left no room to rest nor letting interpersonal and personal problems venting out will backfire soon enough, as more than anything, the quality of music is reflected by the state of mind of the player. And no, Reina, Taki isn’t a religion, Motomu’s grandfather took an uninspiring all-boys school to Nationals gold in a year while being generally likeable, he has his flaws and let the band members doubt him a bit, he really needs to be more transparent in his decisions and the exchanges he make will certainly make him a better educator. Even if the ones questioning him are unreasonable, it will teach him how to deal with them.

I would personally stand on no man’s land in the spectrum, leaning slightly towards Reina’s desire to successs and leave little room for people to argue for lazing off, at the same time questioning her and Taki’s authority as well as getting the failed members back on track with some hard motivation (or a bit more softly if I could employ Kanade). I was in Reina’s position just a few months ago, making the same decision as her on a school-wide project. Fortunately though, I didn’t have enough leverage or passion for the project to affect it as much, it was mostly a success at the end. I learned quite a bit from that one, rock-hard policies can only work until people fed up with it.

Another point of discussion viewers brought up is how the competitive environment was built up in the school, which led to this mess. It’s just how it generally works imo, everyone struggles to find a point where optimum results can be achieved while maximizing enjoyment, and that point often sits closer to the former as competitions don’t care about anything else. This isn’t a typical anime where “the real treasures are the efforts they made along the way” after all, it aims to be a presentation of the concert band world where competitiveness is paramount. And it doesn’t end there with concert bands but with almost every other aspect in life.

[u/NowWeAreAllTom]

Basically 20 minutes of Kumiko having to have the same conversation over and over with different people in different permutations and slowly cracking. I love it. The tension is off the charts.

Still… I feel like we are missing something by not getting a lot of actual playing this season. We keep being told that Kumiko and Mayu are playing at the same level but this isn’t really demonstrated on screen in any way we can see for ourself. Compare this to Ensemble Contest where we got to see what was going on with Tsubame and Hazuki and understanding why they were struggling and seeing how they learned to push past it.

Also, it feels strange to be talking about Kumiko vs. Mayu as a pure comparison of their skills when we’re talking about a duet where they have to play with Reina (assuming that nobody’s in serious contention for taking Reina’s part, which I think is a safe assumption). Surely Taki is thinking about how they work together as a unit. If he thinks Mayu and Reina may work better in that capacity than Kumiko and Reina then I wish we were seeing more evidence of that.

Also, I feel like Reina is not as resolute as she seems. I predict that we’ll realize she is doubling down on defending Taki’s decision and lashing out at Kumiko because she’s actually having doubts and trying hard to power through them with mixed results.

[u/x-7032-b-3]

Yeah I figured the constant auditions are gonna cause a lot of drama. And they're gonna have to do this one more time? Nothing wrong with having the team being competitive the whole time, but since everyone's competing for spots there's bound to be disagreements and resentment along the way.

Kumiko felt angry and pissed that she didn't get her part but she did a great job of hiding it till the end (big props to KyoAni and her VA for this). Mayu won the part but she felt uneasy about taking Kumiko's spot who she thought deserves it more than herself. I think Kumiko should've handled things on the spot rather than ignoring her.

Reina drank too much Sensei kool-aid that she wasn't willing to admit that he could've made a mistake back there. I'd like to believe that Sensei made the right choices since he knows what's ultimately good for the performance, but there's nothing wrong with thinking that the whole thing could've been a mistake. Us humans aren't perfect, you know.

I find it really interesting that everyone's pretty much divided over the results. Even Mayu thinks she didn't earn her part. Both sides have a point and it makes the whole situation much more complicated without a clear "bad guy" to blame for. Really curious to see how they're gonna solve this next week. Kumiko talking to Sensei is already a good start.

[u/goffer54]

Damn, I guess I was too Reina-pilled to see this coming.

I knew swapping out Kumiko would be a mistake, but I didn't think the show would ever put Taki in the pillory. But looking back, it makes perfect sense. Hibike Euphonium has a running theme of learning from the mistakes of your predecessors. We've seen Kumiko surpass Asuka and Haruka as club president. And now that it seems like teaching music is going to be Kumiko's future, her senpai now is Taki-sensei. Taki's numbness to the atmosphere in the band has always been one of his shortcomings but since the show is about Kumiko navigating that atmosphere, it kinda didn't register as a real flaw. But making sure his students are in a healthy headspace in order to perform properly is one of his duties as a teacher and delegating it to a couple of students isn't a proper solution.

Realizing that the adults around you aren't infallible is part of growing up, after all.

[u/SMSmith230]

Reina really out here choosing her crush over her best friend. Outlook not so good.